Thursday, September 1, 2005

Thinking different Phun with grammar: Web Site Grammar. On how a reader of UIE changed our home page singlehandedly by pointing out that "different than" is not as preferable as "different from". [UIE Brain Sparks] Jared is right to claim the benefit of common usage versus absolute propriety. But his reader is also right, IMHO: despite common usage, "different from" is the more appropriate usage. "Differenet than" fails to express the degree of comparison that it implies: is it "more different than" or "less different than" something else? "Different from" makes more sense, it benefits from logic, it's just right. Why? Cuz I said so. 7:53:14 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Speechless A picture is worth how many words? Thanks, Laura 7:41:09 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Katrina, what have you done? There's really little that I can say about Katrina and New Orleans that hasn't been said better by others, such as Laura: washed away. After spending the last few days glued to the news coverage of the hurricane I thought I couldn't possibly have any words to express my emotions. I find I have a bunch of words after all. I was here in 1989 for the Loma Prieta earthquake... [limon :: by Laura Lemay] or Doc: Prophesies. From Gone with the Water, in National Geographic, October 2004. . . This thing is a huge reset button on politics as usual. Along with everything else. I was here for the Loma Prieta earthquake, too. It took three days for word to get out to the rest of the world that there was death and destruction in Santa Cruz county, where the epicenter was, simply because the electricity, hence communication, was out. We managed. This week, we watched the disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi unfolding in front of our eyes; it's simply astounding to me that we knew exactly what was going to happen to New Orleans when a storm like Katrina hit, yet our government still didn't know what to do. What a wake-up call. 7:30:20 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

© Copyright 2002-2005 Fred Sampson. Last update: 10/1/05; 7:14:44 PM.